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WineRelease.com's January 15, 2013 Monthly Newsletter.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone's year is off to a great start and that you enjoyed your holidays. It seems like a whirlwind looking back, but our December/January has been filled with many great dinners and time with friends.

My wife celebrated a "milestone" birthday in December and one of the activities I planned was a thirteen course dinner at our house (prepared by me and my buddy Randall and my two nieces helped) for five of her girlfriends. We started with bacon wrapped dates, adult goldfish (pastry and anchovy paste, baked into crackers), steamed shrimp, etc. Other courses included my infamous butternut squash, little gem lettuces done Spanish style with anchovies, garlic, oil & sherry vinegar; ceviche; rack of lamb encrusted with rosemary, panko breadcrumbs, and honey mustard; a medley of vegetables including roasted beets, mashed potatoes, and brussel sprouts; crab prepared three ways; and sea urchin on crostini. To end, we had a molten chocolate cake with chopped hazel nuts. Needless to say, half of the fun of the meal with pairing the wines with each course, and with such an array of food, we had a lot of choices with our wines.

One of our favorites of the night was the 2008 Lewelling Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Wight Vineyard, one of our sponsor wines. Notes of crème de cassis, smoke, and floral characteristics are quite evident in this deep, rich cab with plenty of tannin and the pairing with the lamb was exquisite.

Other December events found us under a few feet of snow, at my in-laws' in the Sierra mountains. Luckily I packed enough wine to get us through the three day trip. In particular, the family enjoyed Just Joshin 2007 Sierra Foothills Tempranillo (which I thought was quite fitting for the occasion). One of our sponsor wines, and a nice everyday tempranillo, this wine was much lighter bodied than most American tempranillos, holding notes of both dark and red fruit, really possessing a nice finish and very enjoyable with the hearty soups that my mother-in-law made to get us through the chill.

On Christmas eve night, we joined about 20+ of my family (mom, my siblings, their families, my aunt & uncle, my cousin & his family) at my mom's house for her traditional dinner of homemade ravioli with garlic bread and salad. The week before, a subset of the group got together to make the ravioli's at my cousin's house. I don't know about you, but there's something so 'homelike' to me about a nice meat ravioli (stuffed with beef, veal, pork, swiss chard, cheese, egg, etc) served in a nice meat sauce. On Christmas night, another large group of us (25+) enjoyed a fabulous prime rib, hosted by my cousin, Scott and his wife, Barbara. The occasion was the perfect opportunity to break out a bottle of the 2010 DARE by Viader (Cabernet Sauvignon), with its hints of sugar plum, ripe cherry, fig and raspberries. Viader has been a long-standing sponsor of Wine Release and we never run out of the right occasion to break out their delicious wines.

After Christmas, my wife and I had a few days of downtime, attempting (unsuccessfully) to give our new bocce ball set a spin at the courts at Justin Herman Plaza, on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, but getting a lot of things done around the house. New Year's Eve found us with friends (13 adults and 2 babies), enjoying a night of sparkling wine, oyster shooters, fresh steamed crab, ravioli, great friends, and even better wines.

Last weekend, the break in the weather afforded us the opportunity to play bocce ball on the (relatively) unflooded courts and we had a great time. Look closely and you can see my newly walking toddler, getting a head start on chasing the balls.

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